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Sixteen years after she played Elizabeth I in The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex, Bette Davis reprised the role of the last Tudor in this colourful but rather tepid melodrama. She gets to chew a little scenery as she realises that Richard Todd's Walter Raleigh is in love with lady-in-waiting Joan Collins, but the history lesson script keeps her on a short leash. Todd comes across as a sulky boy who isn't allowed to play in the Americas rather than an ambitious man of action, and his romance with the demure Collins is soggier than a cloak over a puddle.

Plot Summary

Historical drama starring Bette Davis, Richard Todd and Joan Collins. While trying to persuade Queen Elizabeth I to support an expedition to the Americas, Walter Raleigh becomes involved with a lady-in-waiting.